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Chapter 1:
Basic Concepts
The Cultural Landscape:
An Introduction to Human Geography
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
Defining Geography
 Word coined by Eratosthenes
 Geo = Earth
 Graphia = writing

Geography thus means “earth writing”
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Contemporary Geography
 Geographers ask where and why
 Location and distribution are important terms
 Geographers are concerned with the tension
between globalization and local diversity
 A division: physical geography and human
geography
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Geography’s Vocabulary
 Place: a specific point on Earth distinguished by a
particular characteristic.
 Region: an area of Earth distinguished by a distinctive
combination of cultural and physical features.
 Scale: the relationship of between the portion of the Earth
being studied and the Earth as a whole.
 Space: refers to the physical gap or interval between two
objects.
 Connections: relationships among people and objects
across the barrier of space.
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Maps
 Two purposes
 As reference tools

To find the shortest routes between locations and to
avoid getting lost along the way
 As communications tools

To show the distribution of human activities and
physical features, and to understand reasons for the
distribution
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Early Map Making
 Above: oldest map (Turkey) 7th
century BC
 Below: Babylon (Iraq) 6th Century
BC
Figure 1-2
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Maps: Scale
 Types of map scale
 Ratio or fraction: numerical ration between
distances on Earth’s surface 1:100
 Written: written word form of ratio
 Graphic: bar line to show distance
 Projection
 Distortion: 4 types




Shape: appears more elongated or squat
Distance: distance becomes increased or decreased
Relative size: altered size so one area appears larger than
another but is in reality smaller
Direction: may be distorted
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 Map Scale
 1) Washington State 1:10,000,000 (1 in
= 10,000,000 inches or 158 miles)
 2) Western Washington 1:1,000,000
 3) Seattle 1:100,000
 4) Downtown Seattle 1:10,000
 As the area covered gets smaller, the
maps get more detailed. 1 in
represents smaller distances
Figure 1-4
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2 Types of Uninterrupted Maps
Robinson Map: shape
distortion/ more ocean
Mercator Map: accurate
shape/ distorted poles
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U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785
 Township and range system
 Township = 6 sq. miles on
each side




North–south lines = principal
meridians
East–west lines = base lines
Each Township has a number
corresponding to a distance: T1
(distance north or south on a
particular baseline
Also a second number known
as Range: R1 (distance east or
west on a particular meridian
line
 Sections: each township is
divided into 36 sections, each
of which is 1 mile by 1 mile.
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Township and Range System
 TL: north-south lines =
meridian lines (red lines).
East-west lines = base lines
(green lines).
 TR: West 6x6 miles/ East 6x6
(then divided into 36 1x1 mile
subsections
 BL: scale of 1:24,000 or 1 inch
= 24,000 inches (2,000 ft)
Figure 1-5
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Contemporary Tools
 Geographic Information
Science (GIScience)
 Global Positioning
Systems (GPS)
 Remote sensing
 Geographic
information systems
(GIS) fig 1-7
Figure 1-7
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A Mash-up
Figure 1-8 https://developers.google.com/maps/
Chicago Transit Authority mash-up shows location of buses and bus
stops along three routes. (computer interactive; rolling the mouse over a
bus stop shows when
the next
3 buses
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Education,
Inc. are expected.
Why is Each Point on Earth Unique?
pg13 - 28
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Place: Unique Location of a Feature
 Location: 4 ways to identify
 Place names

Toponym:
 Site: the physical
characteristics of a place
 Situation: location of a place
relative to other places (helps
locate a location)
 Mathematical location: the
use of meridians and parallels
(longitude and latitude )
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Place: Mathematical Location
 Location of any place can be
described precisely by a
numbering system
 Meridians (lines of
longitude) 74W

Prime meridian (Greenwich,
England)
 Parallels (lines of latitude)
41N

The equator
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The Cultural Landscape
 A unique combination of
social relationships and
physical processes
 Each region = a distinctive
landscape
 People/Culture = the most
important agents of change
to Earth’s surface
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Types of Regions
 Region can apply to any
area larger than a point
but smaller than the
planet.
 Regional Studies:
approach to geography
that emphasizes the
relationship among social
and physical phenomena
in a particular study.
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Types of Regions
 Formal (uniform) regions
 Example: Florida or Red vs
Blue state.
 Functional (nodal or focal
point) regions
 Example: the circulation area
of a newspaper
 Vernacular (cultural) regions
rather than a scientific model
 Example: the American South
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Vernacular Region by
Mental Mapping
 American South:
 Slingshot Artist
characteristics that make
it different from the rest
of the United States
 Environmental
 Cultural
 Economic
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Culture
 Origin from the Latin cultus, meaning “to care for”. Body
of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms
that distinguish a group.
 Two aspects:
 What people care about


Beliefs, values, and customs
Three identifying factors of culture derive from: Language,
Religion, & Ethnicity.
 What people take care of

Earning a living; obtaining food, clothing, and shelter
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Cultural Ecology
 The geographic study of human–environment
relationships
 Two perspectives:
 Environmental determinism:
 The idea developed in the 19th c. by Humboldt and Ritter,
through the examination of natural processes using scientific
enquiry, that the physical environment caused social
development
 Possibilism
 Modern geographers generally reject environmental
determinism in favor of possibilism because humans have the
ability to adjust to and manipulate their environment
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Physical Processes
 Climate: Tropics, Dry,
Warm, Cold, Polar
 Vegetation: Forest biome,
Savanna biome, Grassland
biome, Desert biome
 Soil: 12,000 soil types
 Landforms: flat to
mountainous
 These four processes are
important for understanding
and interpreting Human
Activities
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Modifying the Environment
 Examples
 The Netherlands

Polders: creating land by drainage
 The Florida Everglades

Not so sensitive environmental
modification/ unintended
environmental/social consequences
Figure 1-21
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Why Are Different Places Similar? Pg 28 - 39
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Scale: From Local to Global
 Globalization is….
 a force or process that involves the entire world and results
in making something worldwide in scope. (Rubenstein)
 the process of international integration arising from the
interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other
aspects of culture.
 a process of interaction and integration among the people,
companies, and governments of different nations, a process
driven by international trade and investment and aided by
information technology. This process has effects on the
environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic
development and prosperity, and on human physical wellbeing in societies around the world. (globalization101.org)
 Results in a more uniform world
 Increase in transnational corporations
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Space: Distribution of Features
 Distribution—three features
 Density



Arithmetic (total number of objects in an area)
Physiological (number of persons per unit of area suitable for
agriculture)
Agricultural (the number of farmers per unit area of farmland
 Concentration

The extent of a features spread over space
 Pattern

The geometric arrangement of objects in space
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Space–Time Compression
 Describes the reduction
of time it takes for
something to reach
another place.
 Examples:
 Internet video that goes
viral
 an email received from
someone in another
country
Figure 1-29
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Spatial Interaction
 Improved Transportation networks and Electronic
communications vs the “death” of geography?
 The Friction of Distance
 The degree to which distance interferes with some
interaction
 Distance decay
 The interaction between two places declines as the distance
between the two places increases.
 Contact between places will diminish with increasing
distance until it ultimately disappears.
 The idea that distance makes it difficult to stay
connected has been reduced in many aspects of life
due to improved transportation and communication
Figure 1-30
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Diffusion
 The process by which a characteristic spreads
across space and over time
 Hearth = source area for innovations
 Two types of diffusion
 Relocation
 Expansion

Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus
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Diffusion: Examples
Expansion Diffusion
Relocation Diffusion
 The spread of a feature from
 The spread of an
one place to another through
a snowballing process
idea through
physical
movement
 Hierarchical: spread of an
idea from persons or nodes
of authority
 Contagious: spread of an idea
like a contagious disease,
without regard to hierarchy
 Stimulus: spread of an
underlying principle even
though the characteristic
fails to spread
Figure 1-31
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The End.
Up next: Population
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